Hope
by XxEddiexX
Summary: This is a story about Jasper and Alice, and how they met.


This is my first one-shot just a little glimpse through the eyes of Jasper the first time he meet's Alice.

Hope

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Pov-Jasper

Philadelphia, Why I was here, I still wasn't sure. But where else should I go? It wouldn't matter where I went. I wasn't going back. Nothing could make me go back down south. The wind picked up and any humans left on the street hurried into the closest building for shelter as the rain whipped down the street. I knew I should find somewhere to wait out the storm just in case any of the local humans started to wonder why this stranger was just standing in the pouring rain.

Not that the rain would bother me, but waiting for my clothes to dry later would be a pain, not that I could help that now even if I did go inside, I was already soaked to the bone. I started to walk down the road ducking under doorways and bus stops and other places where the rain wasn't hitting so it would look as if I was semi worried about the turning weather.

It was only about three in the afternoon, this felt very odd, I knew the sun was well-hidden behind all the storm clouds so there was no chance of it hitting me and revealing what I truly was to the humans hiding in the stores, but it still felt funny to be out during the day. After years spent only coming out at night this definitely went against all my normal instincts.

I spotted a small diner in the distance, its neon sign was burning out and it flickered in the rain like some odd kind of sign from a higher power. I shrugged to myself, why not. That would work for now, at least until the rain was over. My eyes were dark enough at the moment that they wouldn't draw attention if anyone got close enough to look at them, but then again the flare in the back of my throat was also stronger because of it and that put all these humans at risk. I shook my head slowly pushing the thought of feeding out of my mind.

I would not feed here. I would not feel another person's terror as I drained their life away to feed the disgusting monster that lived within me, within all of my kind. I couldn't stand it anymore. I made it to the diner as quickly as I could and ducked inside the double doors. I froze in the doorway immediately, as the unmistakable sent hit me, all of my nerves on overdrive as I tensed for danger. The scent was sweet like honey and soft like silk. Someone else was here, someone just like me, another vampire.

I scanned the diner quickly ready to bolt if I had accidently wandered onto someone else's turf. The diner was small and lit only by the small red lights that hung over each individual booth and a row of lights at the counter. I counted eight humans sitting in the front, one waiter by the counter and I could hear two more, males talking in the back. Then I saw her.

She turned to face me just seconds after I had located her position. She was sitting at a high stool along the counter. She met my eye and smiled warmly in my direction. She had the oddest color eyes I had ever seen. Instead of the red or black our kind normally held; hers were a bright gold, liquid honey where there should have been bloody red and death.

As she came towards me I took a second to look her over, I could take her if I had to, she was only about 5'2 and as far as I could tell she was here alone. Being raised in a proper southern home had taught me to respect women, but years of experience had taught me to never underestimate an opponent. She had short black hair that spiked out around her bright face. A face that was still smiling at me and the emotions that I could feel from her were unlike any I had felt in the last two hundred years of my existence.

She was happy, almost ecstatic, and something else I couldn't quite place, it was an unfamiliar feeling. Only seconds had passed since I'd entered the dinner and I was still frozen in the doorway everything inside of me was yelling to prepare for a fight, but nothing about her was threatening. She was radiating happiness and trust. She stopped in front of me, still smiling, and again I looked into those strange gold eyes. I was lost in them.

I had never seen eyes as deep as hers and the strange gold color was quite literally breath taking. I let go of my hold on the door and it swung shut behind me with a soft click, I didn't know why but I felt perfectly safe here, a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time. This woman was no threat to me I was positive of that fact and I didn't even know her name yet.

"You've kept me waiting a long time," She said holding out her hand to me. Was I supposed to meet this woman here? I didn't think so, I had no idea who she was, but I suddenly wanted nothing more than to know everything about her. Nothing going on made any sense, I couldn't find any reason she was talking to me but I ducked my head anyway like my mother had raised me and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am" after all, I had been raised a gentleman and if I had kept her waiting then I should apologise.

I took her hand still not sure exactly why I suddenly wanted to, and then I felt a strong flare of happiness from her and that other emotion that I could finally place. It was Hope, she was hopefully about something, but what I didn't know.

She squeezed my hand smiling down at our intertwined fingers. Her small hand fit perfectly in the palm of my large scar covered one. "It's about time." She added in a whisper even thought she knew I could still hear her. "I was growing so impatient."

She pulled me with her to a small booth in the back of the diner and slid into the seat across from me folding her hands in her lap, a smile still on her gorgeous face. She was relaxed and I couldn't help but feel comfortable with her, no one person's emotions had ever been so strong to me and my power before. I could feel every subtle change in her. And she didn't try to hide anything from me.

Then again what if she didn't know about my power? If she didn't know I could read her then she wouldn't put up any walls. We just sat there looking at each other for awhile and I was once again amazed at the depth of her eyes, which in the bad reddish light were glowing like dark honey or thousand year old amber.

When the waitress came over she quickly ordered two drinks and then the lady went back to the kitchen. She leaned back in her seat.

"It's so good to finally find you Jasper. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to show up. You kept changing your mind about where you wanted to go. I was worried you had gone to another diner or skipped over Philadelphia completely and I would have to hunt you down again."

How did she know my name? What did she mean "waiting for me?" Who the heck was this woman? I had so many questions I didn't know which one to ask first.

"How do you know me?" It seemed the best one to start with. She just smiled again her teeth were bright white and perfectly inline, just like all of our kind. She was grinning with a knowing look in her eye and she watched our hands again for a time before speaking softly, like she was revealing some deep secret.

"I know a lot about you Jasper. I saw you in my first vision over sixty years ago." She stopped for a second her eyes kind of glazed over and, although she was looking at me, she seemed to be seeing past me. Seeing something I could not.

I was concerned that something might be wrong with her and I didn't even know her name yet. The moment only lasted a second before she recovered. She shook her head, her short hair bouncing against her shoulders, and looked at me again, her eyes were clearer now.

"Sorry, I can't really control when they come. My name is Alice by the way. I just saw you were about to ask me what my name was."

She could see visions of the future? I was about to ask when she answered my unspoken question again.

"Yes."

Well that was different, I had never heard of a vampire with that kind of gift before. But I had another question, I had a lot of them, but one at a time seemed like the best way to get all my answers, so I asked the first one I could think of.

"Why were you looking for me?"

She took my hand from across the table in both of hers. Her small delicate fingers seemed to fit just right in my far larger hand. She just stared at our hands for a few minutes and the waitress came and left us our drinks. I thanked her quickly even though the drinks would go untouched. I looked back at her, at this strange woman, at Alice.

She squeezed my hand and another surge of hope and happiness filled the room. Or at least I felt it fill the room the other humans in this diner were oblivious to the powerful emotion flowing from her. She was so happy and everything about her seamed to radiate that powerful emotion.

"I saw that I would find you one day Jasper, and that we would be together for a long time." She looked up at me probably trying to see how I would react to her retaliation. I kept my face calm not showing any of the shock or curiosity I was feeling. It was a little strange but I didn't mind being with her. I also didn't mind that I didn't know why I wanted to be with her either. She continued after it became clear that I wasn't going to say anything.

"I saw that we would travel together and find this other family I've been seeing and then the seven of us would be like a family and that we would be happy." She was nervous now. She turned away from my eyes and looked back down at our hands and ran one of her small fingers over a crescent shaped, pale scar on the joint by my thumb.

I pulled my hand back quickly, hiding it under the table and she flinched back a little and I felt her small wave of hurt and fear at the same time she did.

She had said she knew a lot about me, but how much of my past did she know? Could she know where all my scars had come from? I didn't want anyone to know my dark past, the years of war and murder. I left that life behind me. It wasn't who I was anymore, and I wouldn't go back. Not ever.

"Yes." She spoke in a soft voice; like she was afraid I was going to run away or disappear if she startled me. "Yes, Jasper I know what your past was like."

Now it was my turn to move back a little. I was going to ask her why she was still here then. Surely anyone, human or vampire who knew my past would run from me like the monster I was. I truly was the dark monster all of our kind was supposed to be, but she cut me off before I could start.

"I don't care. I know why you left the south, I know the way your power hurts you when you feed, and I'm not going to run away from you. It took me too damn long to find you!" She stopped and waited it must have been my turn to speak but I could only think of one thing to ask her.

"Why?"

She folded her hands on the table in front of her. "Because I like the way our future looks, and I'm selfish enough to fight for it."

I didn't really know how to respond to that, but she must have seen that I wasn't going to run because the tinge of fear I had felt from her vanished and was replaced by more hope. I liked this feeling, never before had I felt so much hope and wonder in my life. My life that had, until recently been nothing but death and battle. I suddenly knew that I wanted her to be happy and that I wanted to be part of her happiness so I relaxed again and this time it was I who took her hand.

"So tell me about this coven were going to find."

Her face lit up and she jumped to her feet. "Come on, I'll tell you on the way."

Where were we going, I thought she said we would have to try and find them first? She smiled as she took my hand and started pulling me towards the door after tossing a few bills on the table behind us for the drinks.

"We are going shopping first, your clothes are travel worn and you need a new outfit." I could get use to her knowing what I was going to say before I said it.

"So I take it you like to shop." She pulled a wallet out of her pocket and let a large line of credit cards and fake ID's fall out wrapped in plastic. They were all gold.

"Yep, I love clothes. That's another reason I'm so looking forward to us finding our family. I'm going to get Esme to help me build a giant walk in closet. Then I'm going to fill it with designer clothes. And Emmett needs help with his wardrobe. I don't know what that boy was thinking when he bought that awful brown sweater last week."

We walked down the street; the rain had lightened but the sky was still cloudy and gray, promising more bad weather on the way.

She paused seemingly randomly and asked me another question. "What's your favorite color Jasper?"

"Um, I don't have one." That was a lie. My favorite color was the odd gold color of her eyes but I wasn't going to tell her that. Not yet at least. She shrugged and continued.

"I bet you look good in black or maybe a nice light blue." She was talking more to herself than me as we started walking down the street again; probably trying to see what outfit she was going to find me at the store.

"Let's go in here." She walked across the street and ducked into a large department store.

As we walked around the store Alice told me all about the family she had seen in her visions while I tried on the things she tossed me. Apparently they were lead by a man named Carlisle and his mate Esme, along with them were their three adopted children Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett who had all been changed by Carlisle, but of all the things she told me about them the most fascinating was there new-age diet.

From what she had told me they lived a vegetarian lifestyle compared to the rest of our world living off of animal blood instead of human. They had chosen to live this odd lifestyle to try and keep some of their humanity. They didn't want to be monsters so they made the best of the hand they had been dealt. By the time she had me in a new outfit, which after some complaining I got her to let me buy. I was convinced to follow her to this new family, hell, I would probably follow her to the end to the earth but I wasn't quite ready to tell her that yet either.

After all I had only met her about two hours ago. She might think that was weird. We left the mall and she called a taxi to pick us up as a light rain started up again.

"We'll just have to stop by my hotel quick I need to grab my bag then we can start heading west." I nodded and followed her into the taxi.

"Where are you thinking of looking first? Do you know where they are?" I was talking quickly trying to hold my breath near the driver in this small space. He smelt amazingly sweet.

She shook her head, distracting me. "I'm not sure but I did see Carlisle decide to move them somewhere in Alaska after they out grew there last home so that's where we'll head first."

The taxi stopped and we got out in front of a huge grand hotel, I took a deep breath of the rain heavy air to clear my head. We walked inside and the man behind the counter almost jumped when he saw us but he managed to compose himself before he though we saw.

"Ms. Lamide you are back, Is there anything I can get you?" He asked quickly moving from behind the counter so he could talk with Alice. Why was he so nervous? Alice smiled warmly at him and he seemed to relax.

"No, thank you I found what I came here for." She glanced over at me quickly before continuing. "But I will be checking out soon."

He nodded. "Of course ma'am would you like someone to help you with your things?" she shook her head.

"I've got help already, thank you." She towed me off in the direction of the elevator. I waited for the door to close before questioning her.

"Ms. Lamide?" She started giggling as she pushed a button on the elevator.

"Yep that's one of my many undercover names. The man at the front desk thinks I'm a reporter named Ms. Lamide and I'm doing a report on hotels in the area."

I leaned on the back of the elevator. We were going all the way to the top. Her cover story explained why the man down stairs had been so eager to please Alice. "What's your real name? Full name I mean."

She leaned against my chest and sighed. "Mary Alice Brandon." I wrapped my arms around her waist.

"I like that name." She turned around and raised an eyebrow at me. She thought I was kidding.

"Really? I don't like Mary at all, that's why I go by Alice." I hugged her to me, more at ease with her then any vampire I'd ever meet before.

"I like Alice too." I added quickly, I didn't want her to think I was insulting her.

The elevator opened and she led me to the largest suite in the whole place. "You like high class things don't you." It wasn't a question. I could tell she did, but she opened the door and answered me anyway.

"Yep, I paid good money to have this room freed for me to use." She started tossing things into a bag. "Was someone else already staying here?"

She zipped up the bag once it was full not worrying about moving at a human pace anymore then flashed me a sneaky grin. "Yep, but I didn't know how long I was going to wait for you to show up, and I wanted the best, so I paid off the hotel." She filled another bag up.

"How long have you been waiting in Philadelphia?"

She tossed me one of the bags and hooked the other around her shoulder. "Two weeks, that's when you finally decided to come here so I came ahead of you to wait." I really had kept her waiting a long time.

"I'm sorry." I said honestly

She stopped in the door way turning to face me. "Sorry for what Jasper?"

I gave her a sheepish smile and took her hand again. "For keeping you waiting, if I had known you were waiting here I would have run faster." Again the smile that I was quickly coming to love broke out on her face. A strong emotion that, though I had felt it before, I had never felt it for me was flowing from her. It was love. She loved me?

We were waiting for the elevator when she spoke again. "I didn't mind waiting. From what I can see you were worth the wait." Again love pulsed from her. I had only known her for a short time and yet she seemed to love me but, could she? I didn't see how someone like her could love a monster like me.

"Jasper what's wrong?" She asked taking my free hand in her's.

She must have seen that I was fighting with something but what could I tell her. (Oh nothing's wrong, I've only just meet you but I think I'm madly in love with you, do you by chance love me, a monster who's past and secrets you already know.) That would never work out; I didn't deserve someone like her. So I lied.

"Nothing, just thinking about what Alaska will be like." I don't think she bought it but she didn't question me again.

We arrived at the airport after a quiet taxi ride and after passing through baggage claim and getting our tickets we were waiting to fly first class to Alaska.

We sat in the old, worn, deep blue chairs that lined the waiting area by our terminal for them to start loading the plane. "Jasper?" I looked over at Alice, she was curious about something but I could also feel she was reluctant to talk about it.

"What is it Alice? You know you can ask me anything right?" She bit her bottom lip and seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to ask.

She nodded. "I was just wondering how you were changed and why you ended up in the south with Maria in the first place?"

I was startled, that wasn't what I had though she was going to say. "I thought you already knew my past?"

She shook her head. "Not all of it. Only the parts that happened after I was changed, I can't see things that have already past, only things that are to come."

So she didn't know everything about me only some of my past, good maybe she hadn't seen all of the things I had done, all the people I had killed.

"How old are you?" I asked to try and determine what things she would already know and what things I would have to tell her myself.

She sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. "I'm nineteen." I could tell she was playing with me trying to make me think she was upset. Generally it would be rude to ask a lady how old she was but with our kind looks could be very deceiving.

"You know I can feel that you're not really upset with me."

She frowned at me. "I forgot about that part."

I elbowed her playfully in the side and she giggled.

"So how old are you?" I asked again, going for a vampire age not a human age. I wanted to know how much she might know about me.

"I'm 67 and you?" Damn there were a lot of things she might know.

I grinned at her. "Just 137."

That number seemed to shock her a little but she didn't say anything. I hoped she would also forget the question I had avoided answering earlier too. She didn't, it really shouldn't have surprised me.

"You don't have to tell me Jasper. I was just curios." She pulled back a little and I could feel that she was worried. What did it matter if I told her, after all she already new so much about me. What was one more thing?

"If I tell you will you answer something for me?" She nodded so I proceeded to tell her of my life in Texas with my human family, then of joining the army in 1861 and of meeting up with Maria and some of my life in the south, most people already knew the stories of the vampire wars that were waging in the south. Then I told her of Peter my friend who had saved me from a life of war where I killed to live and felt each person's death like my own until it nearly destroyed me.

When I was done she remained quiet for a long time then surprised me again by scooting closer to the monster that had just laid out all his wrongs and evils and grabbed my hand.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"For what? It's not your fault I'm a monster." She glared at me and I felt her sorrow and happiness turn to anger.

"Don't you ever say that again Jasper! Not ever again."

What had I said? "Don't say what?"

She got madder and I tried to calm her with my gift. Instead of relaxing like I had intended her to she just got madder.

"Stop that, and don't you ever call yourself that again it's not your fault either. You are not a horrible monster."

I stopped trying to control her emotions but now I had to focus on controlling my own. "Not my fault! How much have you seen about me Alice? I just told you I've murdered hundreds of people and it is my fault. I didn't have the guts or the brains to leave the south like I should have a long time ago. I completely let Maria brain wash me into thinking that war was the only way for our kind to live." She cut me off.

"That's not your fault it's hers, she used you for her own gain." Our fight was interrupted when they called our flight number which was probably a good thing because the people around us were starting to stare at us.

She stood and grabbed her bag then waited for me to join her but I couldn't. I was frozen. I had frozen in place the moment the scent hit my nose. That sweat scent that called so strongly to our kind and that I had never been able to resist. Bringing out the animal in all of us, in me, Human blood.

Her eyes glazed over momentarily and she must have seen what I was going to do because she tried to grab me a second after I'd moved. She was too late. I was already moving too fast. Blood, the scent was fresh and I felt my already dark eyes go black. I was so stupid, being with Alice I had neglected to go hunting and now I was losing it in the middle of an airport. I heard her behind me running fast, just like I was so no one could see us.

To the humans in the airport we would have only felt like a passing cold breeze. I leapt a set of stairs and landed in a partly underground parking lot. There were large windows that blocked the outside air and the scent was even stronger down here. The scent was pulling me along now and I was lost completely to my animal senses.

"Jasper no, stop don't do it." Alice shouted at me but she was too far behind me to stop me now. A part of me remembered her telling me about the Cullen's and how they all lived off of animal blood rather than that of humans, how did they resist? I tried to fight but I was completely lost to the animal inside me. There was little hope of stopping now.

I could see her, the source of the blood that was clouding my judgment. It was a young blond woman in the parking lot. She had one hand in her purse searching for something and the other hand was pressed to her nose which was bleeding. It was just a simple nose bleed! I was going to kill this woman because the air was too dry for frail human skin. What was wrong with me?

"Fight it, Jasper!" Alice's voice was quiet even though I knew she was nearby. I couldn't concentrate on it.

I was so close just a few more seconds, a few more steps and I would have her. Something hard hit me on the side, tackling me and knocked me off my course. I was sent flying through a glass window which shattered on the ground around me. I took a breath of fresh air and for a second as the scent of blood was washed from my lungs I could think straight.

"Jasper!" Suddenly it hit me. It was her. She had been the one who hit me. The one who had stopped me from murdering that girl? Alice.

I turned holding my breath and ran. I didn't stop until I was in the woods outside of town and far away from that girl and her blood and far away from Alice. She had seen me, I told her my past, my dark secrets and then to top it all off. I lost control right in front of her, in front of Alice. I was so stupid! I would have killed that girl if she hadn't stopped me. I was a monster and it didn't matter if Alice believed differently. I had to leave.

"Jasper, are you ok?" I froze in my place. She was here. I was losing it; I hadn't even heard her coming up behind me. If this had been a battle in the south I'd have died an hour ago. I whipped around to face her, trying to think of something to say to her, soothing to excuse my behavior. What could I say? There was no excuse for being a monster.

"I'm so sorry Alice." It was the only thing I could think of. I didn't know what else to do. So I ran again, part of me wanted her to follow me again, part of me wanted her to leave.

Why was I so scared of her reaction? It shouldn't bother me what she thought of me. But it did bother me more than any other of our kind. I wanted to make her proud. I couldn't travel with her I wasn't good enough for her. She could go find the Cullen's and have her happy future I would only wreck it.

Again I was tackled from behind, only instead of shoving me away from her; she pinned me to the forest floor beneath her small frame.

"Oh no you don't, Jasper! I have waited too long to find you, and you're not running without telling me what's going on." She was sitting on my stomach yelling at me and glaring at me with her strange golden eyes. I could have thrown her off and ran, but her pain stopped me. It cracked around us like lighting coming right from the center of her body. I was hurting her by running. I couldn't bring myself to hurt her.

"Why are you running from me?" She asked locking her eyes with mine and I couldn't have looked away even if I had tried to. Her deep golden eyes, proof of her diet and her strength. Strength I had just shown I didn't have, held me in place.

"Why do you want to be with me?" I countered her question. "It doesn't make any sense for you to want to travel with me."

Her eyes glazed over again then cleared a few seconds later she looked like she would cry if that was at all possible for our kind. She was offended. "Why doesn't it make sense for me to want to travel with you Jazz?" Her anger had subsided and instead she was confused and hurt. I felt terrible for hurting her feelings.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" I had been waiting for it all day. For her to get up and run like most of our kind did when they saw me. You didn't get my kind of scars from living a peaceful life. Most of our kind knew that and avoided me.

"No I'm not afraid of you Jasper, I know what you did back in the south but that's not who you are any more, you want to change and I want to help you."

I could tell that she honestly did, she cared for me even though we had only just meet and if I was being honest with myself I knew that I cared deeply for her too.

"Ok Alice, I won't run. I promise."

She nodded and I felt trust flowing from her. She believed me so willingly, how was I ever going to be good enough for her. Suddenly her emotions switched to cunning and playful. What was she planning? She cocked her head to the side and her lips twitched up at the sides.

"Good, now don't move."

"Why?" I asked suspicious.

"Because I said so."

I was about to ask why again when she kissed me. It was like an electric shock to my long dead heart. Her lips were soft against mine at first but I could tell she was becoming more confident when I didn't pull away. I couldn't have if I'd wanted to, and I didn't want to.

My head was swimming in the overwhelming sweetness of her breath. She smelt like all of my favorite things, southern wild flowers and some strange spice I couldn't quite place. It was intoxicating and wonderful.

Normally I would never have treated or taken advantage of a woman like this. It went against my being a gentleman but honestly I wasn't in control right now. She still had me pinned and it didn't look like we were going anywhere any time soon. Her emotions told me she needed me just like I needed her. I wasn't going to complain. I sat up and she moved so she was straddled over my lap.

Her lips left mine for only a second and I used that time to kiss up the side of her jaw to her ear. She fit against my chest perfectly, like she had been made to fit there, made to fit with me. She moved her lips back to mine and I wrapped my arms around her waist holding her closer to me and kissed her back with more force.

Her fingers laced themselves into the golden curls along the nape of my neck and she gently bit my bottom lip. Love pulsed from her and I, in return, released some of my own confusing and wonderful feelings with my power so she could feel what I was feeling. It was easier then talking and this way I didn't have to let go of her.

We stayed like that for several moments before she broke away, pulling back just far enough so she could look me in the eye. Her golden eyes were glowing in the limited light and even though we didn't need to we were both breathing heavily.

"I knew you would like that." She said with a smirk. I just stared at her trying to sort out all the emotions I was feeling right now. How was it, this small woman held so much control over me? These emotions were all so different from the ones I had grown accustom to. I had felt love before, but never for me and never this strong.

"Jasper?" She tugged lightly on my hair where her soft fingers were still tangled in it. I tried again to respond to her but failed. I must have looked like a breathless moron frozen from shock but she didn't seem to care.

She stood up pulling me with her by my hand. Her fingers fit perfectly laced with mine. I knew what I wanted to say I just wasn't sure at the moment how to work my mouth. Her eyes glazed over briefly again then she smiled at me.

"I saw that Jazz." She stood up on her toes and kissed me again and this time when she pulled back she whispered. "I love you too Jasper."

I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers quickly. One of her hands had tangled itself back in my hair and she gently tugged at the small curls along my neck. I had final found my voice, although it was probably still breathless and even though she already knew how I felt about her I wanted to tell her for myself.

"I love you Alice."

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XxEddiexX

So that's it, just a crazy one-shot idea I had concerning one of my favorite couples please let me know what you think.


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